Some photographs of small things from our March 2025 trip to Cape Town.



Most of these shots were of Autumn budding plants in our garden in Noordhoek. Many of them were taken in the morning, just after the irrigation had finished, so they are covered in little sparkling water droplets.



These are hand-held macro photographs, mostly taken at about a 2:1 ratio (full-frame equivalent) - which is to say that the image appears in the sensor at about double its actual size. Micro four thirds system cameras like my OM-1 are particularly suited for macro shots because they keep about twice as much of the image in focus as a full-frame camera. They are also very light and have excellent image stabilisation.



Despite that, macro images are not easy to take. The final images are composed of 5-20 separate frames, each of which has only a sliver of the plant in focus. By stacking all of these frames together, it is possible to get an image in focus almost from the front to the back. That's the theory, but in practice keeping the camera stable for the sequence of shots is very hard.


Touch or click any image to go to a lightbox view and then touch the full screen icon in the top right hand corner to get the best viewing experience. And for information on the shot and the location, be sure to click the little 'i' icon